Saker interview with Michael Hudson on Venezuela, February 7, 2019

Introduction: There is a great deal of controversy about the true shape of the Venezuelan economy and whether Hugo Chavez’ and Nicholas Maduro’s reform and policies were crucial for the people of Venezuela or whether they were completely misguided and precipitated the current crises. Anybody and everybody seems to have very strong held views about this. But I don’t simply because I lack the expertise to have any such opinions. So I decided to ask one of the most respected independent economists out there, Michael Hudson, for whom I have immense respect and whose analyses (including those he co-authored with Paul Craig Roberts) seem to be the most credible and honest ones you can find. In fact, Paul Craig Roberts considers Hudson the “best economist in the world“!I am deeply grateful to Michael for his replies which, I hope, will contribute to a honest and objective understanding of what really is taking place in Venezuela.The Saker

The Saker: Could you summarize the state of Venezuela’s economy when Chavez came to power?

Michael Hudson: Venezuela was an oil monoculture. Its export revenue was spent largely on importing food and other necessities that it could have produced at home. Its trade was largely with the United States. So despite its oil wealth, it ran up foreign debt.

From the outset, U.S. oil companies have feared that Venezuela might someday use its oil revenues to benefit its overall population instead of letting the U.S. oil industry and its local comprador aristocracy siphon off its wealth. So the oil industry – backed by U.S. diplomacy – held Venezuela hostage in two ways.

First of all, oil refineries were not built in Venezuela, but in Trinidad and in the southern U.S. Gulf Coast states. This enabled U.S. oil companies – or the U.S. Government – to leave Venezuela without a means of “going it alone” and pursuing an independent policy with its oil, as it needed to have this oil refined. It doesn’t help to have oil reserves if you are unable to get this oil refined so as to be usable.

Second, Venezuela’s central bankers were persuaded to pledge their oil reserves and all assets of the state oil sector (including Citgo) as collateral for its foreign debt. This meant that if Venezuela defaulted (or was forced into default by U.S. banks refusing to make timely payment on its foreign debt), bondholders and U.S. oil majors would be in a legal position to take possession of Venezuelan oil assets.

These pro-U.S. policies made Venezuela a typically polarized Latin American oligarchy. Despite being nominally rich in oil revenue, its wealth was concentrated in the hands of a pro-U.S. oligarchy that let its domestic development be steered by the World Bank and IMF. The indigenous population, especially its rural racial minority as well as the urban underclass, was excluded from sharing in the country’s oil wealth. The oligarchy’s arrogant refusal to share the wealth, or even to make Venezuela self-sufficient in essentials, made the election of Hugo Chavez a natural outcome.

The Saker: Could you outline the various reforms and changes introduced by Hugo Chavez? What did he do right, and what did he do wrong?

Michael Hudson: Chavez sought to restore a mixed economy to Venezuela, using its government revenue – mainly from oil, of course – to develop infrastructure and domestic spending on health care, education, employment to raise living standards and productivity for his electoral constituency.

What he was unable to do was to clean up the embezzlement and built-in rake-off of income from the oil sector. And he was unable to stem the capital flight of the oligarchy, taking its wealth and moving it abroad – while running away themselves.

This was not “wrong”. It merely takes a long time to change an economy’s disruption – while the U.S. is using sanctions and “dirty tricks” to stop that process.

The Saker: What are, in your opinion, the causes of the current economic crisis in Venezuela – is it primarily due to mistakes by Chavez and Maduro or is the main cause US sabotage, subversion and sanctions?

Michael Hudson: There is no way that’s Chavez and Maduro could have pursued a pro-Venezuelan policy aimed at achieving economic independence without inciting fury, subversion and sanctions from the United States. American foreign policy remains as focused on oil as it was when it invaded Iraq under Dick Cheney’s regime. U.S. policy is to treat Venezuela as an extension of the U.S. economy, running a trade surplus in oil to spend in the United States or transfer its savings to U.S. banks.

By imposing sanctions that prevent Venezuela from gaining access to its U.S. bank deposits and the assets of its state-owned Citco, the United States is making it impossible for Venezuela to pay its foreign debt. This is forcing it into default, which U.S. diplomats hope to use as an excuse to foreclose on Venezuela’s oil resources and seize its foreign assets much as Paul Singer hedge fund sought to do with Argentina’s foreign assets.

Just as U.S. policy under Kissinger was to make Chile’s “economy scream,” so the U.S. is following the same path against Venezuela. It is using that country as a “demonstration effect” to warn other countries not to act in their self-interest in any way that prevents their economic surplus from being siphoned off by U.S. investors.

The Saker: What in your opinion should Maduro do next (assuming he stays in power and the USA does not overthrow him) to rescue the Venezuelan economy?

Michael Hudson: I cannot think of anything that President Maduro can do that he is not doing. At best, he can seek foreign support – and demonstrate to the world the need for an alternative international financial and economic system.

He already has begun to do this by trying to withdraw Venezuela’s gold from the Bank of England and Federal Reserve. This is turning into “asymmetrical warfare,” threatening what to de-sanctify the dollar standard in international finance. The refusal of England and the United States to grant an elected government control of its foreign assets demonstrates to the entire world that U.S. diplomats and courts alone can and will control foreign countries as an extension of U.S. nationalism.

The price of the U.S. economic attack on Venezuela is thus to fracture the global monetary system. Maduro’s defensive move is showing other countries the need to protect themselves from becoming “another Venezuela” by finding a new safe haven and paying agent for their gold, foreign exchange reserves and foreign debt financing, away from the dollar, sterling and euro areas.

The only way that Maduro can fight successfully is on the institutional level, upping the ante to move “outside the box.” His plan – and of course it is a longer-term plan – is to help catalyze a new international economic order independent of the U.S. dollar standard. It will work in the short run only if the United States believes that it can emerge from this fight as an honest financial broker, honest banking system and supporter of democratically elected regimes. The Trump administration is destroying illusion more thoroughly than any anti-imperialist critic or economic rival could do!

Over the longer run, Maduro also must develop Venezuelan agriculture, along much the same lines that the United States protected and developed its agriculture under the New Deal legislation of the 1930s – rural extension services, rural credit, seed advice, state marketing organizations for crop purchase and supply of mechanization, and the same kind of price supports that the United States has long used to subsidize domestic farm investment to increase productivity.

The Saker: What about the plan to introduce a oil-based crypto currency? Will that be an effective alternative to the dying Venezuelan Bolivar?

Michael Hudson: Only a national government can issue a currency. A “crypto” currency tied to the price of oil would become a hedging vehicle, prone to manipulation and price swings by forward sellers and buyers. A national currency must be based on the ability to tax, and Venezuela’s main tax source is oil revenue, which is being blocked from the United States. So Venezuela’s position is like that of the German mark coming out of its hyperinflation of the early 1920s. The only solution involves balance-of-payments support. It looks like the only such support will come from outside the dollar sphere.

The solution to any hyperinflation must be negotiated diplomatically and be supported by other governments. My history of international trade and financial theory, Trade, Develpoment and Foreign Debt, describes the German reparations problem and how its hyperinflation was solved by the Rentenmark.

Venezuela’s economic-rent tax would fall on oil, and luxury real estate sites, as well as monopoly prices, and on high incomes (mainly financial and monopoly income). This requires a logic to frame such tax and monetary policy. I have tried to explain how to achieve monetary and hence political independence for the past half-century. China is applying such policy most effectively. It is able to do so because it is a large and self-sufficient economy in essentials, running a large enough export surplus to pay for its food imports. Venezuela is in no such position. That is why it is looking to China for support at this time.

The Saker: How much assistance do China, Russia and Iran provide and how much can they do to help? Do you think that these three countries together can help counter-act US sabotage, subversion and sanctions?

Michael Hudson: None of these countries have a current capacity to refine Venezuelan oil. This makes it difficult for them to take payment in Venezuelan oil. Only a long-term supply contract (paid for in advance) would be workable. And even in that case, what would China and Russia do if the United States simply grabbed their property in Venezuela, or refused to let Russia’s oil company take possession of Citco? In that case, the only response would be to seize U.S. investments in their own country as compensation.

At least China and Russia can provide an alternative bank clearing mechanism to SWIFT, so that Venezuela can by pass the U.S. financial system and keep its assets from being grabbed at will by U.S. authorities or bondholders. And of course, they can provide safe-keeping for however much of Venezuela’s gold it can get back from New York and London.

Looking ahead, therefore, China, Russia, Iran and other countries need to set up a new international court to adjudicate the coming diplomatic crisis and its financial and military consequences. Such a court – and its associated international bank as an alternative to the U.S.-controlled IMF and World Bank – needs a clear ideology to frame a set of principles of nationhood and international rights with power to implement and enforce its judgments.

This would confront U.S. financial strategists with a choice: if they continue to treat the IMF, World Bank, ITO and NATO as extensions of increasingly aggressive U.S. foreign policy, they will risk isolating the United States. Europe will have to choose whether to remain a U.S. economic and military satellite, or to throw in its lot with Eurasia.

However, Daniel Yergin reports in the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 7) that China is trying to hedge its bets by opening a back-door negotiation with Guaido’s group, apparently to get the same deal that it has negotiated with Maduro’s government. But any such deal seems unlikely to be honored in practice, given U.S. animosity toward China and Guaido’s total reliance on U.S. covert support.

The Saker: Venezuela kept a lot of its gold in the UK and money in the USA. How could Chavez and Maduro trust these countries or did they not have another choice? Are there viable alternatives to New York and London or are they still the “only game in town” for the world’s central banks?

Michael Hudson: There was never real trust in the Bank of England or Federal Reserve, but it seemed unthinkable that they would refuse to permit an official depositor from withdrawing its own gold. The usual motto is “Trust but verify.” But the unwillingness (or inability) of the Bank of England to verify means that the formerly unthinkable has now arrived: Have these central banks sold this gold forward in the post-London Gold Pool and its successor commodity markets in their attempt to keep down the price so as to maintain the appearance of a solvent U.S. dollar standard.

Paul Craig Roberts has described how this system works. There are forward markets for currencies, stocks and bonds. The Federal Reserve can offer to buy a stock in three months at, say, 10% over the current price. Speculators will by the stock, bidding up the price, so as to take advantage of “the market’s” promise to buy the stock. So by the time three months have passed, the price will have risen. That is largely how the U.S. “Plunge Protection Team” has supported the U.S. stock market.

The system works in reverse to hold down gold prices. The central banks holding gold can get together and offer to sell gold at a low price in three months. “The market” will realize that with low-priced gold being sold, there’s no point in buying more gold and bidding its price up. So the forward-settlement market shapes today’s market.

The question is, have gold buyers (such as the Russian and Chinese government) bought so much gold that the U.S. Fed and the Bank of England have actually had to “make good” on their forward sales, and steadily depleted their gold? In this case, they would have been “living for the moment,” keeping down gold prices for as long as they could, knowing that once the world returns to the pre-1971 gold-exchange standard for intergovernmental balance-of-payments deficits, the U.S. will run out of gold and be unable to maintain its overseas military spending (not to mention its trade deficit and foreign disinvestment in the U.S. stock and bond markets). My book on Super-Imperialism explains why running out of gold forced the Vietnam War to an end. The same logic would apply today to America’s vast network of military bases throughout the world.

Refusal of England and the U.S. to pay Venezuela means that other countries means that foreign official gold reserves can be held hostage to U.S. foreign policy, and even to judgments by U.S. courts to award this gold to foreign creditors or to whoever might bring a lawsuit under U.S. law against these countries.

This hostage-taking now makes it urgent for other countries to develop a viable alternative, especially as the world de-dedollarizes and a gold-exchange standard remains the only way of constraining the military-induced balance of payments deficit of the United States or any other country mounting a military attack. A military empire is very expensive – and gold is a “peaceful” constraint on military-induced payments deficits. (I spell out the details in my Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1972), updated in German as Finanzimperium (2017).

The U.S. has overplayed its hand in destroying the foundation of the dollar-centered global financial order. That order has enabled the United States to be “the exceptional nation” able to run balance-of-payments deficits and foreign debt that it has no intention (or ability) to pay, claiming that the dollars thrown off by its foreign military spending “supply” other countries with their central bank reserves (held in the form of loans to the U.S. Treasury – Treasury bonds and bills – to finance the U.S. budget deficit and its military spending, as well as the largely military U.S. balance-of-payments deficit.

Given the fact that the EU is acting as a branch of NATO and the U.S. banking system, that alternative would have to be associated with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the gold would have to be kept in Russia and/or China.

The Saker: What can other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba and, maybe, Uruguay and Mexico do to help Venezuela?

Michael Hudson: The best thing neighboring Latin American countries can do is to join in creating a vehicle to promote de-dollarization and, with it, an international institution to oversee the writedown of debts that are beyond the ability of countries to pay without imposing austerity and thereby destroying their economies.

An alternative also is needed to the World Bank that would make loans in domestic currency, above all to subsidize investment in domestic food production so as to protect the economy against foreign food-sanctions – the equivalent of a military siege to force surrender by imposing famine conditions. This World Bank for Economic Acceleration would put the development of self-reliance for its members first, instead of promoting export competition while loading borrowers down with foreign debt that would make them prone to the kind of financial blackmail that Venezuela is experiencing.

Being a Roman Catholic country, Venezuela might ask for papal support for a debt write-down and an international institution to oversee the ability to pay by debtor countries without imposing austerity, emigration, depopulation and forced privatization of the public domain.

Two international principles are needed. First, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt in a currency (such as the dollar or its satellites) whose banking system acts to prevents payment.

Second, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt at the price of losing its domestic autonomy as a state: the right to determine its own foreign policy, to tax and to create its own money, and to be free of having to privatize its public assets to pay foreign creditors. Any such debt is a “bad loan” reflecting the creditor’s own irresponsibility or, even worse, pernicious asset grab in a foreclosure that was the whole point of the loan.

The Saker: Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my questions!

The Essential Saker III: Chronicling The Tragedy, Farce And Collapse of the Empire in the Era of Mr MAGA

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Translate: With all due respect, if you have given the opportunity in this blog is to say the mistakes with name and surname to not repeat them again, to separate the wheat straw and not put them in a sentence just to make slogan, that is already responsible the government in any interview and in a chain.

Of course, the defense of sovereignty is the defense of sovereignty, of the fatherland, but that does not mean that during the last 6 years we live resolutions and facts of manifest incompetence. For example, to have a minister of electrical energy who is on twitter and social networks denouncing sabotage to the system, being previously a military man of superior rank, and only that, denouncing for years. Regrettably officials like this abound in government and are so harmful to the homeland that they put it on the table to others.

One way to strengthen ourselves is to learn from our weaknesses, and with a failed economic plan, a cabinet without renewing completely and a president who is not willing to sacrifice, but to the people, we are only heading to violence. It would be pretty good that with an institution as powerful as the National Constituent Assembly the major reforms could be made, without the Russians, but instead they have lost a year and a half in rhetoric, soft actions and right now we do not know because it seems that they are not working.

In any case, we are close to social breakdown and even military. Hyperinflation continues rampant and there is no institutional economic content of any side of the policy, of none, to stop it. If so, it is necessary to dissolve both powers and seek conjunctural forms of government that invoke the two sectors, both of which have the responsibility to stabilize and then go back to compete democratically.

Of course, the opposition is highly enterprising but nothing more with the few named actions, they would be out of place in their own game before the whole world, even Trump and his neocons would remain that way.

Translate:I totally agree with you, if we read in this and other alternative blogs we see a black or white point of view regarding Venezuela. In other words, Maduro and Chávez did everything possible to defend the country from US aggression and yet they are still failing. In reality, the crime and the internal disorganization that now reigns in Venezuela are the fault of Chavismo. Like the successive fall in oil production that has been declining in recent years. I value Michael Hudson very much and I know he is an exceptional economist but he is misinformed when he says that in Venezuela there are no refineries. In Punto Fijo there is a large one.

@Mario says that it is necessary to reorganize the public institutions of Venezuela, but Chavismo has been ruling the country for 20 years and has clearly demonstrated that it was increasingly less capable of governing it (more due to its own incapacity than to foreign intervention). Just one example, the double exchange rate caused great damage to the Venezuelan economy, this was not recognized by the Maduro government in recent years until now because the military with access to the official rate could win huge amounts of money with the arbitration of prices. Instead, Colombians were blamed for living in Venezuela and kicked out of the country in a horrible and inhumane way. These and many more examples demonstrate the clear lack of competition in so many aspects of public governance with the current government.

I would have wanted an independent Venezuela allied with the multipolar world but Chávez and then especially the military high command with Maduro destroyed any opportunity they had losing most of the support of the Venezuelans and the US obviously took advantage of whatever weakness it found.

Very much like the sort of ‘argument’ that says their assault is the fault of the mugging victim because they walked a dark street at night. Venezuela has been brought down by the Real Evil Empire that has terrorised all of Latin America, killing millions, for 200 years. And they, naturally, have had the full assistance of generation after generation of Latin American fascists and greedy oligarch parasites.

I’m in between the “Maduro did nothing wrong” and the “inbetweeners”. Maduro has not been a perfect president, but he’s a better president than most in the region–good enough that if he didn’t happen to be enduring the slings and arrows of the outrageous imperialists and the vengeful compradors, Venezuela would probably have a decent thing going with him as president. But when they’re out to get you, every mistake and every weakness are deadly, and he has a few. It is not obvious who’d be better, though–certainly not that traitor pipsqueak the US has fingered for the job.

For the most part this has been a story about currency. Going back a bit–so first, Chavez was awesome overall–a very smart man who took on extremely difficult situations and very tough opponents and won, and won, and won some more, doing lots of excellent things for the country.
His initial currency controls were probably necessary; they helped stop capital flight. The oligarchs were trying to take all their marbles and crash the economy, and currency controls stopped them. Good enough for that moment in time. But they gradually stopped working well and started causing problems. More importantly, the enemies of the chavistas learned to use them to both cause economic problems and fraudulently rake off huge profits at state expense. Already before Chavez died it was well past time to end them and try something else. Chavez failing to do that was the only really serious mistake he made in my opinion–but it was potentially fatal. Well, he also slowed down too much on land reform and worker takeovers of industry, but that could have been moved on later if it weren’t for the currency problems and their effects absorbing the government’s energies.

Maduro came to power with the currency controls having already been leveraged by the opposition/CIA/etc to trigger extreme inflation and put monkeywrenches in imports. He did not move decisively on this problem but spent years tinkering around the edges. This allowed a whole host of sub-problems to fester and grow–the huge difference between the official value of a Bolivar and the effective value created massive scams, with importers paying the cheap price and then selling at huge multiples. When the government moved to regulate prices in line with what exporters were paying, importers simply smuggled the goods back out of Venezuela to Colombia to sell them for the market price.
Making it far worse is that Maduro generally both was and, perhaps worse, appeared weak. He kept trying to negotiate with the opposition and the oligarchs even though it was obvious that the only outcome they were willing to negotiate was his head on a platter and the people broken. This emboldened them to do more and more. I would be willing to bet Chavez in his position would have nationalized Polar (the biggest food import company) early in the going after catching them breaking the law a few times, and then looked around at all the other guys and asked if they wanted to keep fucking with him. That would also have given him control over a lot of the food import and distribution, removing a big oligarch weapon. But Maduro does not seem to have the guts for that kind of move.
Finally, Maduro has generally, while his heart may be in the right place, actually governed mostly as a typical old fashioned welfare-state liberal. Not that this is so terrible a thing (remember when liberals actually cared about the welfare state?), but the point is that his political power ultimately springs from an organized subset of the population who are trying to do a bottom-up project of taking democratic control of the economy and government at a grassroots level. Chavez, although he used state power and necessarily worked with various power brokers, many of them in his political party, generally realized that ultimately if the organized people were not strong he would lose, and did something about it; he was always doing end runs around the bureaucracy and handing power and resources directly to ordinary people. Maduro probably understands this in theory, but he has generally allowed the state and the not-very-democratic PSUV to sideline projects like the communal councils, communes, co-operatives, popular land takeovers, attempts by unions to take over the running of state enterprises and so on. This weakens the political forces that represent both his base and the group most committed to opposing the opposition oligarchs. In my opinion it’s ideologically wrong, but it’s also pragmatically wrong if he wants to keep the Americans and the rich boys from taking over.

With all due respect, I insist. The only option this days is to support venezuelan government and his sovereingty against this coup attempt from US and its minions.

Speak about Chavez and Maduro supposed mistakes today is helping the puthchists.

Do you want an argentinian style neoliberal democracy? In three years the debt/GDP ratio grew from 40% to 85% and today we are an IMF colony indebted for generations in unpayable ammounts. Poverty grew up from 20% to 40% and in the international recession ranking we are fifth, just a little under Venezuela.

Google translation,MOD-
Let us stop criticism that does not lead to what matters: monetary independence. Venezuela has been captured by a network of monetary dependencies. Not only is it a bad idea to depend on a mono-economy, it is worse to have to depend vertically on its realization. Exit the sphere of the dollar, says Professor Hudson is the first and most important … When this is achieved, do not make the same mistake either with China or whoever helps them. In my view, this help is essential, but dangerous. Respect for sovereignty begins with monetary independence.

If Venezuela represents something in modern history, it is the emerging reality that the oil countries can unravel from the hegemony of the dollar. The agricultural revolution, not only the solar revolution, is critical in this transition.

Sounds like Venezuela is screwed if China does not hold firm in support.

Maybe, finally, China will be a leader it intends to be. Though making a stand in behalf of Venezuela is far from ideal, and very far from China’s shores; it is precisely because China intends to participate on every continent with its wealth and methods of raising the poor from poverty to a middle class that China should do what it can do.

The Hegemon is going to kick China out of the Hemisphere everywhere after Venezuela.
China will be contained as an Asian power and ultimately contained and strangled because it must have imports and exports globally. The US will humiliate China if it runs from Venezuela. And China won’t get to cut a deal with Guaido regime. That will be reversed and China will get nothing.

United, Russia, China, Iran, the nations who have not run from Maduro’s regime, can make a stand and win.
They all need to show will and purpose and some military exercising with Maduro’s military as signs that they are as determined as the Hegemon.

Show weakness to the bully and he will wipe the floor with you and your weak friends.

Venezuela is a test case for the Multi-Polar nations. Somehow, it is a fight worth winning.

I very much doubt any story concerning Venezuela published in the Wall Street Journal sewer. Disinformation, I would say. The Chinese could not possibly be so naive as to believe any guarantee from a pet fascist pig thug of the USA.

The Wall Street Journal is now owned by Rupert Murdoch, and should be treated with the same level of seriousness and trust as his other tabloids. In other words, it is useful for wrapping dead fish and lining bird cages, but for little else.

Very rough on the birds, Anon. I read two stories in his flag-shit, the ‘Australian’ the other day, in a cafe, and had to throw the thing aside lest I be fatally poisoned by the hate-crazed lies therein. One a Zionazi flinging their usual hatred and lies at their Palestinian victims, the other a pile of climate denial filth.

but if China is already negotiating with the imposter Guadio – or whatever his name is – then that’s not leading in a way that will enhance the goodness of the future – only the corruption of the future – I’m disappointed that China would stoop to a level like that – especially after the US has kidnapped their darling princess Meng.

Last fall, the American stock markets were falling rapidly due to Trump’s trade war with China. Just before the G-20 meeting, Trump and his minions talked the markets upwards for a few days by talking about the big, wonderful trade deal he was going to reach with Xi at the G-20. Xi told Trump to go get stuffed. The only announcement that Trump could make to calm the markets was to say that Trump was delaying his new tarriffs on China in exchange for negotiations. This lasted for about one day, then the markets, who know more than Trump about ‘deals’. started to fall again. Trump had to reinforce his lie to the markets by claiming there was a 90 day deadline on the negotiations.

So, far, China has stuck to its guns and is still refusing to give the big bully what he demands. They have offered a couple of side deals, like buying more American soybeans, but Trump’s main demands that China completely open its financial system to Wall Street and that China stop any drive to compete in anything beyond cheap textiles and cheap electronics made for American corporations has been given a firm no.

Even worse, the neocons in Trump’s government escalated the war by taking the Huwei CFO and daughter hostage in Vancouver. This can not have made the Chinese happy or wanting a big deal on American terms.

That 90-day clock is running out. Trump still has nothing to deliver. At best Trump could get a deal where he releases his hostage and cancels his increasing tarrifs in return for some Chinese purchases of soybeans. But, the big wonderful trade deal that Trump keeps promising is an illusion, it won’t occur, and when it fails to occur the markets will punish Trump. That won’t effect ordinary Americans much, but Trump’s oligarch backers will be hurt.

Saker, for all your “lack of economic expertise” your questions show your instinct is spot on! Indeed, how could Chavez and Maduro be so naive so as to trust the US/ UK with Venezuela’s gold??

Chavez came to power in 1999. How come 20 years later (with several years of windfall oil prices) does Venezuela still not have a single domestic oil refinery? Poor Venezuela is now being threatened with an oil embargo…

“China, Russia and Iran: …………… None of these countries have a current capacity to refine Venezuelan oil.”

Yes Venezuela, being tied up so deeply with the USA, now have a very big problem. It will take years and a lot of money to build a refinery and the necessary infra structure. In the mean time, Venezuelas already faltering oil business is going to quickly grind to halt.

A new Presidential election maybe the only way out. The question remains, if Maduro wins would Trump and the other US Neocons accept it?

Why would they? He was just re-elected a few months ago, they didn’t accept that. We saw it in Chile, we saw it in the Palestinian Authority: Elections are only “democratic” if the people vote for our guy.

Good questions.
Regarding keeping the gold in NY and London, who would imagine that these institutions would play political games with this gold?? Where else to keep the gold? Maybe Switzerland? Isn’t that where a lot of gold went to spend WW2? Even though lots of people know that Big Banks such as Citi, Wells Fargo, Chase, and BankAmerica are criminal enterprises, they keep their money there out of habit.( Me, after the crash in 2008 I immed. moved my accounts out of BankAmerica, to a community bank.) So perhaps Ven. kept its gold in these banks out of habit.
Why are there no oil refineries in Venezuela that can refine Ven’s oil.
According to William Engdahl, most of Ven’s oil of a nature that, like the oil in the Canadian tar sands, requires very specialized chemicals and processes to refine, and I think he says that the USA holds the patents on these chemicals. The only refineries that can handle it is in Louisiana or Houston or someplace like that. Pipelines carry refined oil all the way up the East Coast to New Jersey.https://pipeline101.org/Where-Are-Pipelines-Located
Read Engdahl’s analysis:https://journal-neo.org/2019/02/03/is-oil-behind-washington-s-venezuela-coup-madness/
Very informative, especially concerning the definition of Proven reserves. The figure provided in the graph would I believe have to be modified, according to Engdahl.

Wow. Fantastic article
I urge everyone here to read it
Best background and also future prognosis I have seen.
One thing is for sure:
Outside profit=seeking agitators from the USA are not going to “solve” anything in Ven.

If they prevail they might end up “solving” a few problems of oil producers and financial markets in the USA.
But not for long.
They will have an ever-growing humanitarian and economic crisis on their hands in Venezuela. And as oil products become more and more expensive to society as a whole, including especially American society, there will be increasing social crises in the USA.

The author well describes how disintegrating state structures encourage local solutions, including local power grabs.

This article sure reinforces my feeling that the best investment nowadays is a little farm in a temperate climate with plenty of rainfall, within walking distance of a train station and a library, and maybe a vet (for the one-horse farm)! And let us all support the rule of law, domestically and internationally.

that works until you get too old to grow your own – and anyway – there’s no way to grow your own everything – probably we won’t see the worst of it – but the people that are kids now – and their kids – I wonder about that – the Titanic may be starting to turn – but there’s a huge amount to change – and the power is not in the hands of decent people right now

That brings us to the question of patents, copyright, their redesignation as “Intellectual Property”, and the charge to enshrine ever-closer-to-endless patent and copyright enclosures in as many international trade treaties as possible. It’s a cow so sacred that if Venezuela had simply said they weren’t going to recognize foreign patents, the coup would have happened long ago.

Thanks Katherine, for this damn good article of F. William Engdahl.
‘Gründlich’, technical and with a sinister aftertaste… Let me highlight the last two sentences:

“Leaving aside whether or not Maduro is a saint, the decision by President Trump to back the Bolton-Pence call for a US intervention in Venezuela may prove a fatal error to a Trump presidency. He must realize that so the question would be whether someone is putting a gun, literal or figurative, to his head in this.”

Same reason why Russia has been hugely dependent on US oil corporations & engineering firms for all manner of oil industrial activity, including drilling. To participate in the market, i.e. sell your product, in this case oil, the buyer lays down conditions on purchase, such as the following: I will buy your oil, yes, but at an agreed price in a currency of my choice (see USD$/Petrodollar) & I will choose who refines it – in other words, corporations of my choosing. So Venezuela couldn’t build its own refinery, because its main client/buyer, wouldn’t purchase their oil if they did.I take it with your name being what it is you understand the term: “stoka bez repa” or more simply: “bitanga.” That describes these lot, not very sophisticated I know, but there is no other way to describe US imperialists, or imperialists generally. Stoka i bitange.

Really appreciated. Finding the economic underpinnings of economic warfare as is going on presently. The hegemon certainly sees his world grappling fading. Views like these help us see the unfolding of power structures worldwide.

I don’t understand this paragraph – writing with computers is not okay – they don’t write as well as humans – and humans find it impossible to understand gibberish written by careless computer transcribers

Refusal of England and the U.S. to pay Venezuela means that other countries means that foreign official gold reserves can be held hostage to U.S. foreign policy, and even to judgments by U.S. courts to award this gold to foreign creditors or to whoever might bring a lawsuit under U.S. law against these countries.

It says that anyone else at whom the Hegemon might become annoyed must quickly and immediately retrieve any gold held by the US and the UK while they still can.

And if they can, as the article also points out that the US has been spending this gold to keep the price of gold (in USD) low and thus to make it look like less of a financial crisis than it really is. There have already been hints that the US Fed Reserve and now the UK don’t have the actual physical gold that they claim to have. Remember back a few years ago when Germany said it wanted its gold back from the US, and the US had to delay and negotiate a deal that said basically give us a year or so to come up with it and then you can have your gold back. Around the same time was when Russia and China started demanding real actual gold in response to their trades, and refused to accept paper promises of gold in payment.

Awesome article – thanks Saker – sorry for frustration in that one paragraph – a very interesting paragraph it is –

I’ll pass this on to whoever will read it – I wish I had a hot-line to Maduro – getting the Catholic Church – to pay – I doubt they have the legal ability to write off the debt – but they could certainly PAY the debt – is a great idea.

I’m totally on Maduro’s side – there is such alot of vicious gossip about him and Chavez – being so corrupt – that its sickening

An excellent interview! Just by way of elaborating the Bank of England’s heist of Venezuela’s gold, it was signed off by BoE’s governor Mark Carney, formerly governor of the Bank of Canada who disappeared Canada’s gold reserves too and previously learned his larceny as a senior partner in Goldman Sachs. Time for tar and pitchforks methinks…

Disappeared? The gold was sold. What do you think would happen if Canada has gold reserves while the USA is facing a crisis with its gold reserves? Selling it is preferable to having it swindled/stolen/used as leverage against us.

Not sure about this, but Canada’s gold was sold during the initial NAFTA discussions under the Mulroney government and is probably tied into the deal – Canada sold its gold as a way to support its bid for NAFTA. Last time I heard about a year ago, Canada had about 70 ounces remaining of its own gold, while it holds much more in storage for other countries.

Hi Jim. Nice to see you join the discussion. I read your articles on Global Research too! I thought that NAFTA was foisted on Canada by the superpower next door, and the Canadian authorities at the time decided to take a chance on further economic integration because they were concerned about the potential for the US economy to become more isolationist. It’s always stressed to the Canadian public that these negotiations involve give and take — maybe that was a give. :-) In 2019, with Russia, China and India stockpiling gold, I can’t imagine Canada deciding to give it a go along with the superpowers, or great powers. I think we’re spectators at this time.

While we’re “geeking out” on Canada’s gold reserves, I thought I’d add this link. Turns out Timothy Lane (Bank of Canada Deputy Governor) gave a speech on this very subject (Canada’s reserves) in Washington Feb.6, 2019. He references gold and the USMCA (or CUSMA depending which side of the border you’re on.)

Here in Austfailia the Treasurer at the time, Costello, an arrogant, smirking, Rightwing incompetent, sold all our gold, on orders from the neo-liberals, at the very bottom of the market, losing us billions.

It goes as a given that the USSA is a hyper-violent, corrupt, rapacious, imperialistic, interventionist, neo-colonialist, criminal regime and is massively in the wrong across the board in its ongoing regime change project in Venezuela.

That said, Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro have made deep, fundamental, self-destructive errors in their so-called Bolivarian Revolution.

1) Chavez and Maduro spectacularly and critically failed to diversify the economy, leaving it extraordinarily vulnerable to a precipitous drop in petroleum prices, which inevitably occurred. And when the petroleum price dropped they had <> Plan B. Note well: Nicolas Maduro’s profession was: bus driver. Hugo Chavez profession was: tank officer in the army. Driving a tank or a passenger bus simply is not adequate preparation to be head of state of a modern nationa-state. Neither Chavez nor Maduro appear(ed) to have any sort of intelligent understanding of economics, industrial production, agricultural policy, national energy infrastructure, food policy, water policy, detailed understanding of the petroleum industry, and so forth. They were both impressively unprepared to govern a modern nation-state. But they excell(ed) at standing up in front of large revolutionary rallies, shaking their firsts in the air, and trumpeting the virtues of the “revolution” — a revolution which collapsed around their ears just as soon as petroleum prices fell.

2) Simply handing out money to the poor is not a “revolution” and did nothing to diversify the economy. Maybe half a million of these people are now in Ecuador (where I live) and many of them appear to have no particular skill sets or training. They are selling ice cream cones and energy drinks on the street corner, begging for spare change on the sidewalk and buses, or selling bottled water up and down the aisles of public transport. Many others have turned to crime and prostitution on the streets in Ecuador. I have seen this in my own neighborhood. Not all Venezuelans are like that! — but enough are that they have had a noticeable, not always good effect on this formally traditional, Andean society.

3) Nafeez Ahmed mentions the galloping corruption in Venezuela and offers the figure of $300 billion in internal corruption within the system. BOTH SIDES are corrupt — the Chavistas and the opposition. The same thing has happened here in Ecuador in the decade of Correismo — Rafael Correa and his Alianza Pais Party went around braying about their Citizens Revolution — and left the country mired in absolutely unpayable debt! Rafael Correa’s government even took out billions of dollars of loans with the Chinese at as much as 8% interest! That was his “revolution”. Rafael Correa maxed out the national credit card, left the country in hock up to its ears to the IMF, World Bank, the IADB, the Chinese, etc. and then left the country to live in Brussels, Belgium, while an ever lengthening list of his ex-ministers and functionaries are exposed for massive corruption and jailed or imprisoned for peculado, cohecho, sobornos, asociacion ilicita, etc. The decade of Correismo is being exposed for nothing less than a ten year shake down of Ecuador, under the guise of a revolution. His “revolution” was all financed by massive, unpayable debt! It was as revolutionary as it would be if your daughter took your credit cards and maxed them all out for many thousands of dollars and then justified her wanton behavior as “revolutionary economics” and for your own best interests!

3) Nafeez Ahmed mentions that most of Venezuela’s electrical production comes from just <> hydroelectric plant, the Guri Dam. This is extraordinary and leaves Venezuela extremely vulnerable to energy shortages, which in fact are occurring with regularity. The Chavistas failed to improve the energy security of the country, though they were flush with many billions of dollars in petroleum revenue and could have initiated a national project to improve the energy infrastructure. They did NOT do that. This reveals that neither Chavez nor Maduro were/are capable of second order thinking (forget about 3rd and 4th order thought) and were/are shallow men, devoid of the capacity for contingency planning on a national scale — unpardonable character defects for a national leader, because this fatal shortcoming has plunged millions of people into suffering, want and deprivation. Back in the post-WW II period, the Argentine economist, Raul Prebisch and the ECLA-istas (Economic Commission for Latin America) were strongly promoting import substitution as the way forward for Latin American economies that were historically prone to the boom-bust vicissitudes of reliance on an economic model heavily based on export of primary materials: gold, copper, petroleum, bananas, cacao, tin, sugar, rice, etc. Seventy (70) years have passed and the (ahem) Latin American “revolutionaries” have not yet gotten that simple truth through their thick skulls. Correa, Morales, Chavez, Ortega, Maduro — none of them seem to have gotten the f*cking message. Correa is the worst of all, a PhD economist who seemed satisfied merely to go on television as often as possible for ten years and blab and blab for hours about his “revolution” while his corrupt ministers lined their pockets with money and plunged the country into unpayable debt. And when his term of office was over he left the country! So much for the great revolutionary. Typical banana republic. He’s like a character out of a Miguel Angel Asturias novel — the corrupt caudillo looking after his own interests, while flinging a few pennies to the poor and applauding them for their revolutionary fervor as they scramble to pick the coins out of the mud.

4) By neglecting to strengthen the national infrastructure the Chavistas have guaranteed the failure of their “revolution.” This includes everything from electrical generation, bolstering agricultural production and rural communities, economic diversification, ecosystem protection, tree planting and forestation to preserve watersheds, training in the trades – mechanical and machine work, carpentry, engineering, etc., mathematical and scientific training, to home making, food preparation, family planning and more. By failing to strengthen society across the board the failure of their “revolution” is a certainty!

5) There is little support for Nicolas Maduro and his “revolution” among the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Venezuelans who have fled the country to live in exile here in Ecuador. They have definitively voted with their feet! No doubt there are millions more in Venezuela who have thought of leaving and would if they could, but who lack the means to emigrate and try to make it in another country. Andrei, I know that many of your commentators seem to think that the rank and file in the Venezuelan military will fight tooth and nail to defend the Maduro regime. I have doubts! I don’t think that’s a guarantee. Maybe they will, but what if they instead surrender in droves, relieved at the chance to be rid of a despotic, autocratic leader and his increasingly failed government? Nicolas Maduro is no Valdimir Putin, not by a long shot. Putin has degrees in economics, law and chemistry and speaks multiple languages. He is intelligent and a master planner and strategist. Whereas Maduro is a bus driver who rose through the party ranks to a position of political influence. That’s it. There’s no need to make Nicolas Maduro into something that he is not.

You make a lot of excellent points, Richard, and I agree with all of them.

There is no reason Venezuela should not have been self-sufficient in food a decade ago. This is a tropical country with adequate rainfall, not a sub-Saharan desert or a place like northern Canada or Siberia where it is frozen 8 months a year.

For contrast Cuba, with a publicly owned economy, diversified long ago from its one crop dependence on sugar into agricultural self-sufficiency and has managed to keep its people fed, housed, clothed, very well educated, gainfully employed, and relatively prosperous with excellent free medical care compared to the surrounding islands like Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico with similar resources. And they did it in the face of a vicious 60 year ongoing US blockade including every kind of economic, military, and CIA sabotage including germ warfare against their livestock, crop diseases sprayed over their fields, and outright invasion.

Cuba, however, had a genuine revolution in every sense, militarily defeating the corrupt Batista army and state and carrying through a full land reform which saw the corrupt US compradore elite and police flee to Florida. The building of a new state and armed forces from scratch on the basis of people who had personally risked their lives in a protracted civil war and defended the country from a US invasion ensured the new government had the people’s interests at heart instead of self-interest and self-serving careerism. We will see if that continues now that the leadership has been passed to a new generation who did not have to fight for their freedom.

China has the capacity to fairly quickly build a major refinery for Venezuelan crude either in China itself or in Venezuela, and buy all the output. The question is: do they want to risk further investment which might simply be seized and stolen by the US which is already carrying out innumerable acts of war against them? None of Venezuela’s supporters are in a logistical position to assist them if actually invaded either directly or indirectly by the US.

I’ve long been expecting the US to attack Venezuela before Iran. Close to home, far from any military assistance, and huge oil reserves which the US wants to deny China access to, or at least, force China to purchase from US companies in US dollars.

This “crisis” has been decades in the making, just waiting for Uncle Sam to pull the trigger, and as you point out so well, the failure of the Chavez and Maduro governments to use their oil revenues to insulate themselves from US controlled financial institutions and diversify their economy toward self sufficiency and full employment, especially in agriculture and food processing, is coming back to bite them.

One thing many people(especially politicians) are not aware of is that growing food successfully to feed your population is not easy, many plants refuse to produce fruit due to the heat of the soil, they grow and then b4 harvest they stop developing and react to the harsh conditions. Much of the planet is like this, so to simply say “a country by now should have” overlooks reality and makes the assumption that the country’s leaders are somehow responsible for the lack of food production. Every plant has it’s favorite environment which is the main reason how the U.S. famed “breadbasket of the world” came about. But to then use that as an excuse to criticize nations for not being able to compete with say our food growing abilities is unfair to the least and could reach the stage of arrogance if a politically motivated movement felt the need to throw down their Grade A ness.

I doin’t understand the premise of this comment. They seem to be that there is just one model for farming, the North American one.
Of course different plants thrive in different climates and conditions. Venezuela may not be able to grow a large wheat crop.
1. So, stick with plants that or potentially thrive in your conditions. That is the point made somewhere around here of the importance of extension services, training, and knowledge. Alos, land redistribution or creation of whatever type of land entity (bigger farms? smaller farms? greenhouses? ) will work in your own regions. Intensive farming has been done for eons in many challenging climates around the world. For example, the terraces of Bali. Surely there is something to learn from Cuba about food self-sufficiency.
2. Fund the science necessary to develop varieties of food plants that will tolerate the heat. Or learn from the original populations how to combine crops so that they mutually support each other biologically (I am thinking of the North American example of corn and beans). Another reason why universities, agricultural colleges and their extension services are so important. Really underrated. The University of Massachusetts actually started out in 1863 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College. As a child I was in 4-H, which was a system of agricultural clubs supported by the Extension Service. Children learned how to raise animals, cook, sew. Many agricultural colleges had or still have experimental stations. Some were later transformed into state universities but still have practical agricultural departments. Just saying that, yes, successful agricultural development on a national scale requires some infrastructure. But I don’t think climate precludes developing that intellectual and practical infrastructure.The agricultural college model seems to be one that Venezuela could have profited from, as well as the Cuban model.

Despite the many good points made by Richard Sauder, I can’t believe that a coup is going to help anything. The Americans do not have the best interests of Venezuelan citizens at heart. Heck, they don’t hve the best interests of American citizen at h eart. Venezuela seems to need more of the technology transfer that the Cuba has provided in many sectors. Esp. medicine. But perhap not agriculture?

I linked to Nafeez Ahmed’s article Katherine. Please see my main comment that started this thread.

Of course, a coup by the USSA is/would be/will be massively, tragically wrong, in multiple ways, on multiple levels. I am completely opposed!

But that does not relieve Chavez and Maduro of their spectacularly poor governmental decision-making in multiple policy areas over a two decade period, that has profoundly contributed to the Venezuelan crisis.

And naturally one of those policys was not invest in refining some of your own product so after a couple decades if you found yourself in a pinch, you would not have to rely so much on others to offer a service in order to make a living. Of course putting your trust in American hands seemed at first blush to be a wise idea, until you got trusted, which is so easy for Americans to do these days.

What is there not to understand? Those things(growing what you can grow) have been going on for centuries. What has not been going on for centuries is American politicians demand that all the world be democratized in our likeness of having everything available for everyone all the time, as long as you can afford it. The plants dont need anymore funding for study, it costs just as much to grow a broccolli today as it did a hundred years ago. What costs money is bringing the product to mkt and the increasing associated costs w/that.

You mention Cuba as if every nation is its own island with a cooling pool surrounding it, cuba is unique and therefore can not be used as any example of success to be used below the 35th parrell. anyhoos my example was to show that even a lie or mistruth said often enough tends to quickly become a fact even though it is not based on factual information, then a ton of funding is spent trying to prove said fact and once it fails the test of time, is never heard from again except to be reborn in a different place and the whole process starts again.

I didn’t say that Veezuela should, would or could compete with Kansas’ wheat production. But there is no reason why a fertile, tropical country like Venezuela cannot feed its own population. And yes, it is the job of the national leadership of any country to consider their own national food production and agricultural policy. Anything less cannot be excused. Venezuela long relied on using petroleum revenue to import food, and did not support its rural and agricultural sectors, with the result that national agricultural production was not, and is not, sufficient to feed its population. So when petroleum revenue declined, the defective national food policy of Chavism revealed itself in all its (ahem( “revolutionary” weakness, and hunger reared its ugly head.

During his time as President, Hugo Chavez did try to reform and diversify Venezuela’s agriculture by carrying out land reforms that took land away from wealthy estates (latifundios) – some if not most of that land having been illegally or forcibly acquired in the past and since then lying fallow – and redistributed it to farming collectives, and identifying potential staple crops that could be grown on such land.

To this end, among other things, he invited Chinese and Vietnamese agronomists to Venezuela who identified areas originally said to be unproductive were in fact suitable for growing basic food crops such as rice.

My understanding (from high school geography up to and including Year 11, admittedly) is that tropical regions are not really as fertile as people often think. Tropical forests can look abundant but the reality is that trees in such forests grow tall to catch available sunlight and rain. The forest floor is usually dark and bare. Heavy rainfall washes away any leaf litter on the forest floor and thin top soil and any minerals it contains. People who have lived in tropical forest regions for centuries usually follow a hunting-foraging lifestyle and if they practise agriculture, it is of the slash-n-burn type: they cut down trees in an area and burn them to obtain ashes that are used to fertilise crops they grow. After a couple of years, the soil in the area is exhausted so they have to move on. The result is that tropical forest areas have usually supported very small populations.

In those parts of northern and central Brazil where tropical forests have been cut down, the low fertility of the soil means that the land can only be used for grazing cattle or for growing soybean (which adds nitrogen to the soil to make it more fertile).

Tropical areas just need terra preta ie biochar, permaculture and agroforestry techniques to be drowning in healthy food, grown amid healthy ecosystems. If the Thanatopians take over, Venezuela will get GE cash crops drenched in glyphosate and other agrichemical toxins, with the population poisoned and pauperised. nThe ‘Free World’ model for the ‘useless eaters’.

Jen:
Good points re deceptive look of “fertility” of jungles.
cutting jungles down for agriculture: bad idea!
But a robust research program could have as an aim how to adapt “forest farming” to the Venezuelan jungle.
Again, American or British agribusiness with big fuel and low human inputs is not a good model anyhow.

Something new is needed!
The Dutch are masters (and mistresses) of using a combo of ingenuity and technology to respond to the biggest challenges earth can throw at a small, waterlogged country. I think the Netherlands is the biggest food exporter in teh world. Or in Europe? Something.
The Dutch are doing massive greenhouse projects in Russia. Not that greenhouses are needed in Ven, but perhaps that “engineering” approach is needed. AAMOF, Dutch horticulture first got its start in the tropics. In the Netherlands they are now doing a lot with vertical, urban growing systems. Just saying . . .

A few points:
First, as far as I can tell, Venezuela did significantly increase its food production under Chavez. Unfortunately, all the half-starved people started eating more and that kind of cancelled out the increase; population also grew. Basically, efforts to increase local food production were effective, just not effective enough.

Second, the big problem for most countries today trying to diversify their economies is that by the time they start, they’re already locked into various free trade agreements which basically make all effective government efforts towards building a diversified economy illegal.

Third, Chavez was incredibly well read and knew a whole lot about politics and economics. Dismissing him because he didn’t go to Harvard with George W. is foolish.

Fourth, he was never fully in control of Venezuela. Even when Chavista parties were fully in control of the legislature, those parties were “big tent” outfits and there were a lot of provincial governors and so on with independent power bases, not to mention the largely anti-Chavista media and of course the companies doing the importing that so much of Venezuela depended on. Chavez was always doing balancing acts and trying to get them to trend in the directions he wanted. The problem with import substitution is that it brings short term pain, which can be politically costly to impose. He never even managed to cut the subsidy on gasoline, even though every policymaker including both Bolivarians and opposition agreed it was ridiculous, because any move on it would have been incredibly easy for political opponents to capitalize on. Venezuela was never anything resembling a command economy. So while it’s easy to say “diversify the economy” it’s not so easy to make happen. Alberta never managed it despite plenty of lip service about trying. Heck, since NAFTA Canada as a whole has moved ever more firmly back towards a resource based, almost third world economy, chucking out the window the diversification it previously had. This certainly didn’t happen because Canada was governed by bus drivers–to the contrary, mostly wealthy elitists with properly groomed educations. So yeah, he failed to do it because it’s really hard, not because he was some kind of uneducated moron.

A Venezuelan citizen commented on a Facebook thread that they are not going hungry, but they are not eating the American import foods that they had grown to love. Instead of burgers and fries, they are going back to eating their traditional foods. They were unfamiliar to me and I can’t remember anything he listed except maybe yams(?), but it sounded as if they are doing what you recommend, if reluctantly.

Richard Sauder, I think you haven’t noticed Latin American countries turned from colonies straight into US/UK backyards. Neither you seem to remember the war exerted by Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil and promoted by UK against Paraguay when that country showed some signs of beginning to march toward imports independence. Of course you’ve forgotten the hundreds of coups and interventions sponsored by those same powers in the region. That’s probably why you think import substitution is such an easy task for us. Given your repeated and sarcastic allusions to the “revolutions” you show a notoriously biased thought. You also forgot to mention how regional elites worked continuously against their own countries by means of tax evasion and capital flight, Raul Prebisch being one of their main advisors to accomplish that. So, I beg you, next time, try to be a bit more accurate with history, will you? Thanks.

Oh, no, I have seen the deep, criminal corruption of the Rafael Correa regime at first hand. Revolutionary sloganeering (charla politica vacia para hipnotizar a los esclavos) about the Citizen’s Revolution, while robbing Ecuador up, down and sideways by the billions of dollars.

The numbers I have seen suggest that as much of $70 billion left the country during the decade of Correismo. There was no Bolivarian Revolution here in Ecuador, on the contrary, there was a great, multi-billion dollar Bolivarian robbery of the Ecuadorean people.

You protest so much, that perhaps it is the truth in my words that offends you?

Here is a quote from Nocolas Maduro himself less than two months ago, who amazingly makes virtually the same point that I do:

Translation: “It’s true that there is much corruption, there is much laziness and much bureaucracy, there are many bandits here taking advantage of their positions to rob the people …..

“They are the worst enemies that the country has now, bandits, thieves who disguise themselves in red (revolutionary colors) and have robbed the country ….”

There. You don’t like hearing it from me, but those are Nicolas Maduro’s words..

Will you accept the truth about Venezuela from Nicolas Maduro’s own lips? He’s describing his own government as being full of lazy, corrupt thieves wearing “revolutionary” colors. I have seen the same lying, thieving, stealing “revolutionaries” here in Ecuador.

I think what you resent is that I understand Latin American culture a little too well.

Did you even read what I said about the USA being a hyper-violent, neo-colononialist, interventionist, corrupt, criminal regime? I am well aware of the great harm that the CIA, State Department, Commerce Department, Pentagon et all have done in Latin America.

I have also seen Fake, Phony Latin American revolutionaries who are nothing but the worst sorts of thieves and liars.

Is Nicolas Maduro not saying the same thing about his own government as I am?

Can you admit this? That the Venezuelan government is riddled with thieves and fake revolutionaries? Nicolas Maduro himself has admitted this publicly in recent weeks, and yet you try to criticize me for making the same point?

Removed. No attacking other commenters – breaks moderation policy. Any further attacks will go to trash. Mod.

“Oh, no, I have seen the deep, criminal corruption of the Rafael Correa regime at first hand.”

I cannot comment on the corruption of the Correa regime.
However, I can comment on Correa’s doing the right thing when it came to Julian Assange.
Correa gave Assange a safe haven.
What is being done to Assange niw is the worst criminality.
A horror.
He is, literally, being killed in darkness.

Well, the difference between Correa and his successor Lenin Moreno is that Correa had thieving jackals in his government, while Lenin Moreno IS one of the thieving jackals who was in Correa’s government.

It’s not a question of ‘failed ideology’, but of the Thanatopian fascists’ unrelenting economic sabotage and warfare, the treachery of the Venezuelan parasite class and Western fakestream media presstitute lying and hypocrisy. Any country that attempts to govern for the downtrodden many rather than the parasitic few will gain Thanatopia’s undying hostility.

Given that it is my understanding that China has had the opportunity to benefit from Prof. Hudson’s economic expertise, I would suggest that any consultations they would be having with Mr. Guaido might be more along the line of suggestions to him concerning the difficult position he is now in. There may be a diplomatic effort underway, since the young man is after all a Venezuelan citizen, who may very well be feeling rather desperate that things are not going well for him. I could see efforts being made to save him from continuing on a foolhardy course. Maduro has said he will talk with the young man anywhere, any time. It reminds me a bit of the position the Syrian Kurds are in – negotiations are certainly needed through world institutions against an obvious coup attempt masterminded by such as Pompeo, Bolton, etc. With friends like those, who needs enemies?

I think also of President Putin’s ability to persuade many oligarchs to work for their country and not against it – that is the way forward, it seems to me. Surely Ukraine is an awful example of what can happen if thugs take over, and those Venezuelans don’t look to me like such thugs. They look like people who want to be part of their country’s success. Hopefully there’s a Venezuelan Lavrov somewhere in the mix!

Thanks to Saker and Prof. Hudson for shining light on the situation with the gold reserves and the pressure being applied by British and American banks. Withholding the transfer when needed seems criminal of those banks. Surely there will be consequences.

I’m not an economist either, but clearly by now the handwriting is on the wall that very few nations have accepted the ‘leadership’ being so blatantly orchestrated by US officials. Even my own small native land is holding back from acknowledging Mr. Guaido as president, but rather calling for elections to clarify to all who is the people’s choice. (Sorry, just came to me Agatha Christie’s Poirot saying “Time, and the little grey cells…”)

Excellent, very indepth, highly informative interview, thanks. I usually nod off when reading anything about the international financial system, but this was bang on the money. The sheer blatant piracy, the complete disregard for international law, and the grovelling cringeworthy sycophancy of all the little puppets in the West. And after Venezuela? Probably Iran. Except for people on sites like this, and other alternative media, where is the outcry? Where is the demand that Govts respect international law? Or are we all trapped on a speeding rollercoaster with no way to get off?

But, Gezzah, our political invertebrates are dedicated to the ‘rules based International Order’. Didn’t you get the memo, or see our scrawny ex-Foreign Minister or much more commodious current Foreign Minister using that nonsense, Orwellian, humbug to attack China and Russia?

Mulga Mumblebrain: thanks Mulga, sometimes I lapse into dumb naivety, and forget we actually live in one of the most bootlicking bumlicking vassal states of the Anglo Zionist Empire. I virtually avoid all mainstream media now. It was making me want to yell words starting with ‘F’ and throw my shoe at the TV…. Its all theatre for the gullible to lap up, and the MSM tells us when to clap and when to boo.

Amazingly fine and accurate analysis! Must read! The utmost need for an honest, reportable international Judicial System not controlled or even used by the United States of America has been obvious since 1990s. The US open use of the United Nations refusing to allow it sovereneighty of any kind, is impossible and destroys the body over and over.

It is astonishing that Venezuela has ended up in this position when it has had its little brother of Cuba as an economic/revolutionary model to follow! Germany, in the 1930’s, was in the same position and used the ideas of Gottfried Feder to create their own asset mark, owned by the German nation. One mark was issued against one mark of labor and this system gave Germany full employment and the power to build its infrastructure while the rest of the world was mired in depression. I am surprised that Michael Hudson does not propose this model as one of Venezuela’s possible solutions?

The Soviet Union faced terrible challenges and opposition throughout its history, including embargoes. Not dissimilar to what Venezuela is going through now. And yet, even with a population that was about as illiterate as Venezuela was when Chavez came to power, within the same period, about 20 years, from 1921 to 1941, it has totally modernized and industrialized so as to be able to withstand the full on invasion of the most advanced ruthless army of its day.

So what is the difference? It is not as if Venezuela does not have educated people? And it has friends, in Russia and China. That it is in such a predicament is difficult to understand.

This is a very important question. The answer is simple, in a sense. First, the Soviet Union avoided financial traps geared to extracting wealth from the country. The Soviets repudiated all bonds issued by the Russian government and thus cancelled their debt obligations. They also nationalized assets under foreign ownership and terminated direct foreign investment. Most importantly, the Soviet Union pursued a directed industrial policy to industrialize the country. Critically too, the Gosbank regulated money supply based on supporting the industrial policy. Foreign reserves were not required under this system. This prevented restrictions on the money supply from strangling economic growth.

I find it funny, how you use a word “controversial”, when you don’t want to name things what they really are!There is no single thing controversial about Venezuela, the USA just wants their oil and other resources, and the other vultures would like to have a share, too!

I have no doubt that very deep pockets are selling short the Venezuelan Bolivars.

I wonder why Venez doesn’t scrap the Bolivar and use Euros, Yuan, even US dollars instead. Zimbabwe did this and nipped inflation overnight. (eg, sell oil to China/Russia/India, get paid in cash Yuan/Rubles/Rupees and airfreight it all back to Venez central bank or whoever dishes out oil revenue. People are very fast learners when it comes to valuing currency…..a loaf of bread would be priced, eg 30 Rubles and recognised in the various foreign currencies by everyone within 24 hours. And the price would stay the same. month in, month out.)

The Middle East produces mostly sour crude and Indian and Chinese refineries have spare capacity. If not sufficient spare capacity then do as South Africa did and flood old mine shafts with crude and refine at leisure.

…that and the School of the Americas no one seems to have mentioned here. Now Known as WHINSEC – the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation – this ‘school’ taught subversions, torture, covert operations, extrajudicial justice (murder) to many Latin American militaries, para-militaries, and assorted goons. Much of the corruption can be credited to this aspect as well.

Looking forward, only Russia and China can actually assist Venezuela practically because both of those got themselves in a better position from basically the same starting place. Its not so long ago that Russia was described as a gas station pretending to be a country. We hope Venezuela starts listening.

Looking forward I guess none of the Western media has the new developments but things for Venezuela are proceeding apace.

So, seemingly the empire is facing more resistance than what they thought they were going to get.

People rail against China not doing anything. I think they are doing stuff that we cannot yet see. This piece has been on their Global Times since the coup started.

Nations should explore better system to break US hegemony
“The world is still dominated by the US dollar and corporations. So its financial and economic measures can force other states to adjust their policies accordingly so as to fund the superpower to buttress its geopolitical hegemony. In turn, the US will abuse such hegemony to bolster its dollar supremacy. This, however, will exacerbate tensions and override the liberal international order as the US is forcefully reshaping the order to make it serve its own interests.

A new mechanism should be devised to thwart such a vicious circle. With the US-EU division now deepening, even the US’ European allies can see the downside of the US manipulation of the world order and have realized the need to help their businesses develop for the sake of their own interests. ”http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1137847.shtml

Venezuela has friends willing to lend a practical hand. Maduro is probably toast, but it will be constitutional with all these eyes on Venezuela and rooting for them. I hope there is someone there that can take over.

Excellent! Hudson expands on his previous essay and spells things out more completely, which is much appreciated! For those not having read that essay, here’s the link. As always, I highly suggest reading everything Hudson has written over the years as it’s all still relevant. Also, his recent major work dealing with the rise of Creditor Hegemony is really essential to understand the course human development has taken over the past 3,000 years. Here’s the most recent article touching that subject.

The most important facts I gained from this interview confirm my previous thoughts that the only real mistake Chavez and Maduro made was not being radical enough with their Bolivarian Revolution and nationalizing everything–they didn’t out of fear the Outlaw US Empire would do what it’s now doing. So, now that the Empire has done its damage, Maduro has nothing to lose and everything to gain by Nationalizing the remaining critical sectors of the economy.

I would invite people to read How it Could Happen by John Michael Greer, which is a series of essays (later turned into a novel) about how the USA could collapse. It involves China coming to the aid of an oil-rich African country about to be invaded by the USA, the USA decisively losing the war, which ultimately breaks apart the USA.

The scenario in those essays/book is quite similar to what is happening to Venezuela today. Based on open information sources, China is not ready to help Venezuela to the extent they helped the fictional African nation; but it would be great if Chavez built up Venezuela’s arsenal with these missiles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_c_PeIIeMw

“This brilliant analysis makes clear that the US monetary hegemonic system has set up the starvation of all the Venezuelan people years ago, in process today, yesterday.” The fleeing thousands of unaccompanied Venezuelan children escaping the careful death of their State show the actual circumstances of an US Mafia control of all the South America continent planned as far back as the end of WW1″.

“Why wouldn’t it be possible for China to set up the means for it to process the heavy Venezuelan oil in order for
Venezuela to survive the gutting of the Continent of South America? The relentless Nazi-like US/UK propaganda to demonise the Russian Federation, WW11’s global saviour, has always been to render Europe helpless to US take-over.

i am posting this link of an article here on the thread with Hudson’s interview, altho it might be just a tad OT. It is about some personalities in the Venezuela opposition, mentors/supporters of Guiado, but primarily about Abrams. (Warning, article goes into some detail about Abrams and the El Salvadore atrocities, with which he had serious involvement/coverup)

The author is clearly agitated, justifieable so, to see abrams back on the scene, as he was and is an evil psychopathic monster. However, the information that he relates about the “opposition” does encourage some further examination as to who is involved in this murky coup machinations. Informed commentators here may have more to add:

There are a number of links in the linked article which may be of interest: the original article by Roberto Lovato was surprisingly published in Foreign Policy, the mouthpiece of Council on foreign Relations. A rebutal was also published there after a failed attempt by lopez followers to have the original article pulled.

It is probably telling that such aggressive attacks were mounted against lovato’s original article which clearly was construed to be negative. (Not surprisingly, we see this same tactic today on anything negative on the powerful …______(fill in the blanks).

Haass of Iraq shock and awe fame, is Pres of cfr and has been very actively advocating regime change in Venezuela.

_____________________italic text
The picture of Abrams with Smolansky, the opposition leader, makes me fear that we’re about to witness an El Salvador option for Venezuela. It takes me back to 2014. I was in Venezuela doing a lengthy investigative story about Smolansky’s ally in the Venezuelan opposition, Leopoldo López. The country was in the midst of what many Chavistas denounced as another coup attempt led by López, who current opposition leader and self-proclaimed president Juan Guiadó calls his mentor.

A Rightist return to power will INEVITABLY lead to the traditional death-squad activities as resistance to vicious social vengeance by the parasite classes spreads among the poor majority. And with the Zionazi ultra-fascist Abrams there, and no doubt with Negroponte and other practiced mass murderers lending expertise, Venezuela will become a charnel-house, just as most Latin American countries have been at one, or more, time or another since the Monroe Doctrine was imposed by the monsters in Thanatopolis DC.

I just noted this report, from WSJ behind paywall, which adds more info, not sure of accuracy obviously, but the coup plotting (and plotters) gets murkier and murkier. One can be sure that the cia/mossad cowboys are up to their eyeballs on this and maybe mi6.

Israeli flags were also prominent at demonstrations by the Islamophobe racists of the ‘English Defence League’ (like Kahane’s ‘Jewish Defence League’ and Zionazi terror gang in the tradition of the Irgun, Stern Gang and Hagganah)unremarkable as it was created by an ‘English’ Zionazi. Also at South Sudanese independence, the fruit of forty years of MOSSAD efforts after the Zionazis vowed to destroy Sudan for its joining the 1967 war. They haven’t finished with Sudan either, being the big peddlers of the ‘Darfur Genocide’ lies, even through the US Holocaust Museum, an odd enterprise for such an institution, ie promoting internecine war and blood-letting in the name of ‘preventing’ it. The Zionazis have a particular hatred for Venezuela, ever since Chavez unambiguously sided with the Palestinians against their ‘Divine’ oppressors. And I see that that little emanation from Hades, the religious fanatic psychopath and thug, Pompeo, has claimed that Hezbollah is active in Venezuela. If so, all I can say is-good on you, yet again, but I suspect it is just a lie from a recidivist liar.

The information gathered here and the many questions posed, I would like to hear President Maduro himself answer. Assuming that because Maduro was a bus-driver and therefore cannot seriously be qualified to govern properly cannot be deduced by extended logic. It is a false deduction.
Good rule emits from having one’s heart in the right place and then looking and listening out for good credible advice. A president is influenced and guided by his ministers and the people and is a combined effort and that effort is all directed toward their socialist society, so this needs to be questioned.
Extremely good points are presented here, but I now need to listen to what the top man has to say when questioned in detail. If Maduro would answer these questions convincingly his position would be enhanced, but would this save him and Venezuela ?

No other foreign company that operates in Venezuela is even close to Russia’s oil output capacity. ExxonMobil used to work on the oil fields of Venezuela before the Russians arrived, but the work of the American company was not that efficient.
By 2007, Venezuelan authorities had changed the rules of the game in their fields for foreign oil producers and offered them to share.
The Americans did not want to share and left.
Russia has been working in the Orinoco belt ever since.
See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/news/world/142213-usa_venezuela/

“I said everywhere – in Italy, Spain and France – that, if sanctions similar to those imposed on Venezuela were slapped on their countries, not a single government would be able to retain power,” Klimov emphasized. “The question is whether or not all that [Venezuela’s crisis] will spiral into the guerrilla war phase. I believe there are quite a few people in the US who insist on a military incursion, and I do hope their ambitions will not be realized.”

Not to disagree with Professor Hudson, just a shading of opinion …
Both Russia and Venezeula have petrocurrrencies, and both have or soon will have, crypto currencies that, for all practical purposes, are payable in oil.
Thus the weakness of the Venezeulan Petro lies not in an inability to withstand attack in the financial markets but on the limited marketability of Venezeulan heavy oil.
Russia is in a very different position, and may regret not moving into its cryptocurrency at an earlier date.
The USA has recognised the potential for cryptocurrencies to provide an “end run” around sanctions and is moving toward supranational legislation to contain the threat. My best guess is that it will fail. That is merely a guess, or perhaps a bet that China will prevail in the competion for Artificial Intelligence and Active Surveillance, and related fields.

Thank you for this article. I just read Michael Hudson’s bio on Wikipedia, and intend to order his books. Is Michael Hudson suggesting that the gold standard is viable? Without astronomical inflation in the price of gold, in addition to forcing the tech sector away from using it, since they are the primary consumers other than jewlers, and governments literally robbing citizens of their gold, like Modi recently resorted to in India, the gold standard is not mathmatically feasible.

Originally, NumberSlueth posted interesting facts on gold whichbhas been 404ed. Here is math worked out on the total world gold supply, the world gold forum estimates that all of the gold that has ever been mined is 189,000 metric tons. NumberSlueth.org estimated 165,000 metric tons in existence a few years ago, the discrepencies may possibly be the results of additional mining, and vanishing from the market by improper waste of technology in mother boards.

There is currently only about 2/3 of a troy ounce of gold per person on earth. Central banks and governments around the world only own 18% of the 165,000 metric tons of gold in existence. Most is in the posession of private individuals, according to Numberslueth. During the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, corrupt government officials were also stealing gold from citizens. It happened to someone that I know. The U.S. governmemt loves civil asset forfeiture! If you don’t think that it can ever happen here, you’re dreaming!

Good argument Andrea. From what I’ve read from him, Michael Hudson is an advocate of Modern Monetary Theory. So as far as I can see, the answer would be a definite no.

I’m sure Mr Hudson is familiar with Triffin’s dilemma. Triffin showed that inevitable conflicts of interest would arise in the attempt to base a reserve currency on gold. Capitalism is based on the principal of exponentially infinite economic growth. Supporting such a system requires corresponding infinite expansion of the money supply to maintain growth. Otherwise the economy will stall and fall into recession. This policy runs counter to the interest of holders of dollars (such as foreign central banks who hold the currency as reserves). They see their holdings devalued. Once faith in the currency is lost, creditors demand payment in gold and the system collapses. So it’s naive to state that Nixon ended the gold standard. He had no choice. It would be more accurate to state that de Gaulle ended the gold standard. But in fact, the gold standard was doomed from the start.

Bill Still’s documentary “The Money Masters” on YouTube has some interesting insights on these ideas.

Thank you David Hollander,
Unfortunately, I am unable to access youtube. Hackers have extremely limited my internet capabilities. I am unable to access many stndard websites, including the New York Times, NBC, The Washington Post, and my local paper, which are mostly pure fiction anyways, but I really miss Youtube!

From what I had read of Michael Hudson’s bio, it would appear that he would be entirely against MMT, because it seems that Michael Hudson is against interest, because interst is the cause of the expanding debt, and the extreme inflation.

I am in agreement! It is in the national interest to end interest! A country cannot have a stable economy, a stable currency, and interest! Interst is merely a reward for greed, sheer laziness, and predatory behavior!

I propose congress ending The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 instituting article 1 section 8 clause 5 of the U.S. constitution, and creating a debt free interest free government greenback, similar to the Pennsylvania pound, based on land, but not charging interesr. There are 105.8 trillion square feet of land in America, U.S. household networth including non-profits, ( I guess that they are referring to trust funds primarily ) is roughly $106 trillion, the federal government spends roughly $4.5 trillion annually, (currently) stock market capitalization is roughly $27 trillion, and there are about 23 million small businesses in America, that I do not have statistic on. A greenback based on land value, but without a guaranteed conversion to land, ( because it would allow foreign countries to take control of America and our recources ) would work domestically, but leaves the dilemma of foreign trade. I also oopose FOREX trading manipulating currency prices resulting in crashing economies.

When I had first read the U.S. household and non profit netwoth number being at a staggering $106 trillion, I was astonished! Rightly so, because it is apparently a complete fabrication! U.S. residential real estate equity is merely $15.3 trillion, the entire stock market, which is not nearly fully owned by U.S. househlds is $27 trillion, the entire corporate bond market is worth roughly $7 trillion, the entire U.S. national debt is about $22 trillion, and $6.8 trillion is owned by foreigners, and the governmemts and Federal Reserve own 70% of the national debt, and the entire U.S. money supply is roughly $14.4 trillion I can imagine people around the world readingbthe $106 trillion number, feeling totally outraged and ripped off, but it doesn’t add up! It would be the equvalent of every individual American having a personal, not household, but a personal networth of $328,000. STOP the “creative” accounting!

Since the Federal Resrve uses outrigh fraud as a business model, that becomes more opaque with each passing year, Time deposits formerly referred to as M3 are discontinued from FRED since 2013.
National Insecurity is not in the National Interest! Of course, destroying and terrorizing America is the primary goal of the Federal Reserve!

“Central banks and governments around the world only own 18% of the 165,000 metric tons of gold in existence.” I was watching an interview Greg Hunter did to Daniel Estulin a few weeks ago and Estulin mentioned that the Chinese (GOVERMENT) has at least 30000 tonnes of gold. if this is true(other people have suggested more or less the same during the last couple of years) , then it means that the chinese ALONE have at least 20 % of the number you mentioned. Then you have the gold that is in the hands of the Russians, the Europeans and many other goverments around the world. This means that the goverments/central Banks probably have much more than 18 % of the gold in existence.

Whatever our demagogs did at wherever place they chose and at what time they wished, we are certain that surely their efforts will end at nothing. It just fascinating that the same international institutions that were created for the peaceful resolution of disputes among nations and organization are being wrangled about and trashed by the same people that benefitted most from them and upon whose soils they rested… So sad!! #HandsOffVenezuela!

The you Saker and thank you, Michael Hudson. I’ve been reading your articles at Global Research since 2003. Thanks for teaching me how the Military Industrial Congressional Scam Complex works in conjunction with the US Dollar Scam.

Well it is an interesting article–lots of in-the-box jargon–no mention of the 800 lb matzo ball–did it actually make any noise? See below for the hidden hand. Even the amateurs can begin to connect the dots.

Elliott Abrams appointed by Trump to oversee the US coup against Venezuela “backed death squads in Latin America that murdered 1000s for right-wing dictators, lied to congress to cover up treasonous Iran-Contra affair, led 2002 US coup attempt in Venezuela. Still think this is about democracy & human rights?”

Anti-Semitism was widespread under Chávez and has continued since his death in 2013. Jewish groups estimate that about 50 percent of the 22,000 Jews who lived in the country when Chávez came to power have left.

Last year, the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League condemned a magazine for using anti-Semitic imagery on its cover that suggested the country’s economic problems were brought on by wealthy people of “Israelite origin.”

Former Venezuelan Government Minister Tareck El Aissami was appointed Vice President of Venezuela in January 2017, by President Nicolas Maduro. Aissami has links to Iran and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, as well as Venezuela’s drug cartels according to U.S. intelligence services. The Wiesenthal Center’s representative in Latin America, Ariel Gelblung, stated following Aissami’s appointment that he “may transform anti-Semitism into state policy and further the transplantation of the Middle East conflict to South America.”

In June 2008, the first vice-president of the Venezuelan Confederation of Israeli Associations (CAIV) David Bittán denounced a government-led campaign of attempting to link the Jewish community with launching a failed coup back in 2002. “There is a campaign coming from the official sector that accuses and blames directly some members of our Jewish community as the leading characters of the April coup,” said Bittán during the opening of the seminar “Jewish in the Spanish-Speaking Americas,” hosted in Madrid by Casa América and Casa Sefarad. “Over the past few years, we have bumped into a stumbling block in the development of the Jewish community due to attacks coming directly from the state media or where the state is somewhat involved. We have been the victim of two police raids in search for arms and subversive materials in our schools,” recalled Bittán and labeled as “difficult” the situation undergone by the Jewish community since President Hugo Chávez took office.

Interesting interview. A further related question would be whether anyone can enlighten us as to the nature of the deal done in 2017 between the Maduro Government and Goldman Sachs. It was reported that shares of PDVSA were sold at a knockdown price to Goldman Sachs. The deal was reported as being made through Venezuela’s Central Bank, giving a cash injection to Venezuela but with potential huge gains for Goldman Sachs. I don’t know the details but I think this only serves to underline the situation of absolute financial dependency which is at the root of the problem and also the fact that not only USA but also China and other actors are all there with their fingers in the well…

We live in a world were ultimately Money is God and the underlying economical considerations that most people do not understand very well, much less the shady dealings on stock markets and in speculation, are what end up being the causes of human tragedy, migrations, civil wars etc.

Any well meaning leader that tries to take this on will be either killed or discredited and still other not so well meaning or intelligent “leaders” can see a good opportunity to cream off some loot when they see it.

I repeat, ultimately MONEY IS GOD in this world and this inanimate object plus the various economic philosophies, be they left, right or in between are but the tools of that God. There is a another element that is being marked in the Venezuela crisis and that is that there are powers in the world that want to shift the axis of the way that money moves and to a certain extent this is part of that exercise.

Anything the UN calls for is because its part of an overall longer term plan. The USA will be taken down, new bosses will take over eventually, money will become totally virtual and social credit scores will be part of a system in which we are “lovingly watched over by AI” all in service of a non human entity that we call money.

Maduro, meanwhile, acts at the behest of powerful interest groups, some of which are to be found embedded in Cuba… All politicians must play the game and be handled by one or another of the branch operators of the international two winged bird/beast.

If it were that he had the intelligence to swim in such waters and navigate all of that for the ultimate benefit of ordinary people in his country then all well and good but you’d need to be a genius to unravel that situation and I fear that Maduro is out of his depth and yet somehow able to navigate it, at least to the benefit of his own sense of self importance and those around him, making him but another tool in the hands of more intelligent masters.

Chavez, for all his mistakes, was too independently minded and too literally in the direction of comprehending the ideas of Bolivar to be fully trustworthy. Certain ex ministers of the Chavez government such as Rafael Ramirez have said that Chavez, when very ill, was pressured hugely by the Cubans to anoint Maduro.. After arriving at the Palacio de Miraflores Maduro fairly shortly dismissed Ramirez as minister in charge of PDVSA and began to run it himself, as well as being President.

I am not an expert on Venezuela, much less the nuances and inside stories of such power shake ups but something doesn’t sound quite right with all of that and it raises a big question mark as to whether all is quite as it would seem to be. Is this really a straight fight between the “bully boy Trump” and company against the rebel leader with the big black moustache or is there more to this than meets the eye?

Attention U.S, Airforce in Colombia on the double! Take the tons of food, hygene, and medical supplies to San Francisco! You are in the wrong country! You are nowhere near our borders! Are your GPS satellites down?!

It would be grand if Michael Hudson and Martin Armstrong (armstrongeconomics.com), and followers of these two, would coordinate their understanding of global and local economic and monetary systems to dominate those groups who currently control economic and monetary systems for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of the people at large. As MA and MH suggest, rich and poor, we are all in this together.

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